OCEANSIDE —
Tracey Gross was riding her bicycle home late Sunday night in Oceanside when she was hit by a car that didn’t stop — dragging her bicycle 2 miles down the highway.
Gross, 51, was critically injured and declared brain dead this week. She was an organ donor, and on Friday, surgeons at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla planned to remove her heart, lungs and other organs so they can be given to others, her family said.
The driver who hit Gross has not yet been located, but police suspect he or she lives near where the collision occurred — on state Route 76 and Singh Way.
Police have asked the public to help locate the driver and the car, which they believe is a silver 2013 or 2015 Kia Optima. The car will have damage to its right front bumper and right headlight and will be missing parts to the bottom engine cover, police said.
Gross was the mother of two adult children — Angel, 28, and Alec, 22. She worked as a postal carrier the past 10 years, walking a mail route in Oceanside, her family said.
“Our Oceanside postal family was shocked and saddened to hear about the incident,” the local postal office said in a statement. “We are grieving Tracey’s absence and keeping her family in our thoughts and prayers.”
